To Kill in Cold Blood
by NK11
Summary: Three years after DX:IW Alex D killed her brothers to join the Illuminati She start to reget her decision and has strange dreams about the man she once loved and killed but thats the least of her problems.. Changed to Mature due to violence
1. Waterfront

Chapter one : Waterfront

He was standing by the docks like he always did every time they met. He was looking out into the water, his black hair flowing loosely with the wind. He turned to look and smiled at Alex D.

"Why, hello darling!" he said to her, his voice tantalising. She walked over towards him. Before she could say anything he pressed his lips against hers. His lips felt a bit dry against her soft lips, but she didn't mind. She was happy as long as he was always with her. They both pulled away at the same time.

"Mmm, you smell nice Alex."

"But I'm not wearing any perfume."

"Doesn't matter, you always smell nice to me," he said whilst pulling her into an embrace.

"Tong will kill me if he sees me with you," she said sounding worried.

"Why?" he said sounding confused.

"Because Tong believes I killed your brother, when in fact it was an Illuminati commando."

"Really," his voice turning cold, releasing her from his embrace, walking over to the dockside.

"It's the truth, I saw it myself!"

"Then why didn't you help him?" he yelled almost violently. He turned to her.

"I couldn't, I was injured!"

"Funny, you didn't have a single scratch on you when I found you, when I came to!" he said sounding suspicious.

"I…I…" Alex stuttered.

"I knew it! I knew you were the one who killed him!" he said very violently while punching her hard in the face, making her fall to the ground. He walked over to Alex and crouched down beside her. "Why did you kill him?" he said very emotionally, tears streaming from his eyes, "He was our brother! Did you think he was going to get in the way of our love?"

"He…he attacked me," Alex said weakly, "It was out of self defence, I didn't want to kill him!"

"Oh, really? Oh, I'm sorry! It was wrong for me to smack you like that. Here, let me help you up," he said while helping her up.

"I…forgive…you."

"Please let me make it up to you!"

He leaned forward and started kissing her neck while caressing her face, his hands slipping down to her arms trying to remove her jacket.

"N…not here," she said trying to push him away, but he wouldn't budge.

"Please let it be here now. I'm yours, no one else's!" he said shoving her hard onto the ground. He leaned down forcing her to kiss him.

"Stop…Just stop it!" she screamed.

"No! I want to take you here, right here! I'm yours and you're mine, we don't belong to anyone! No one!" he shouted violently. He pulled out an army knife and started cutting into her clothes down the middle while accidentally nicking her skin. She struggled a bit trying to break free of his grasp but he was too heavy. As he was about to reach her abdomen a buzzing sound rang so loudly it made him stop, then both screamed. Alex D woke up in a cold sweat. She turned to see the buzzing sound was in fact her alarm clock. She slammed her fist down hard on it breaking it. _Another nightmare, another day._

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It had been three years since she had betrayed her brothers and joined the Illuminati. She had tried to convince herself at the time it was the right decision but the truth was it had only been a half-hearted decision. She remembered her pitiful attempt to convince Paul to betray JC. He had been justified in being angry with her, he had even had the right to attack her. _Do you remember how guilty you felt when you had to kill them in cold blood?_ She stared at her bedroom window, nothing really had changed since she joined the Illuminati except they had more power. Tarsus was still the same except the goals were different. QueeQueg's and Pequod's were still bitter rivals even though she had told two QueeQueg's managers, one in Trier, one in Cairo that QueeQueg's and Pequod's were owned by the same mysterious entity called J. She remembered what the manager in Trier had said, "Next you're going to tell me the WTO and the Order are run by the same people!" Ironically in fact they had been.

After the incident on Liberty Island the Illuminati had made her one of the new secret masters and given her three places to live. There was a castle in England, a huge house in the Arcology in Cairo and a huge penthouse in Tokyo. She liked the penthouse in Tokyo the best, it had the best view and she felt safer in it. It had the best security system money could buy - gold level security beams, security bots, turrets and cameras, bullet-proof windows. The house in Cairo did have the gold lasers and the bullet-proof windows but no cameras or turrets and security bots. While the castle had cameras and turrets but no special windows. The original stained glass windows had been kept in to look authentic. She would have to buy the extra security for the other places. But she had too much time on her hands and she couldn't sometimes be bothered. _Why bother spending so much money on the other two properties when you hardly ever stay there?_

She remembered the first month after Liberty Island. She had the first of those nightmares then. One of her brothers - it was always the same one - stood by the docks. At first he would act as if they were lovers, saying how beautiful she was and how he was always happy to see her, more than anything in the world. The next thing she knew he would turn ultra violent saying how he hated her for ruining everything and killing their brother. Then he would turn all sweet again and act like nothing had happened. Then he would try to rape her but before he even got the chance to she would always wake up. _Because nothing really special happened between us, we just kissed once and he died in my arms._ It was like a novel the way he had died in her arms, except she was the one who had killed him. _And now you're in love with him. _Sometimes she used to see him when he wasn't really there. This guy asked her to dance, she couldn't remember his name, but for the whole dance she only saw _his_ face not the person she was dancing with. His body flowed with the music perfectly, his eyes were looking in hers, only hers, his hair moved around like it was liquid, the whole dance felt like a dream, a beautiful dream, one she'd never have in real life after what she had done. She could hear other people talking saying how much in love they must be.

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Tatsumi ran down the alleyway away from an AeroSecurity Bot who was shooting at him.

"You've got the wrong person! I was the one being attacked not them!" yelled Tatsumi.

"Terminating threat now," answered the bot continuing to fire. Tatsumi tried to dodge the bullets as much as he could but then a bullet hit him in the lower calf and he fell to the ground. _Just play dead, he'll think you're dead and then leave you alone!_ The bot circled Tatsumi as he laid still.

"Threat still alive. Terminating now." The bot was about to fire a few more shots when it fell to the ground as if it had been hit by an EMP grenade or something similar. Tatsumi struggled to get up but he was losing blood. He could only crawl. He crawled until he was out in the open street and then he collapsed, everything was so blurry to him. Then a woman walked up towards him asking if he was alright. As he was about to answer everything went black.

A/N: Chapter two coming soon


	2. Stain of Blood

Chapter Two : Stain of Blood

Alex D stood in her kitchen pouring a glass of red wine while looking out of the window not realising she was overpouring it as she was too deep in thought.

_The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bots are shooting anyone who breaks the law, if only you could be here._ He'd probably ask her if this is what she wanted. _No, maybe this is not what I want. Maybe I did want that universal biomodification stuff. But at the time I was too worried about your sanity. _She sighed when she realised that she had poured red wine all over the table. _Oh well, never did like that tablecloth in the first place._

It was bad for her anyway having wine for breakfast. She often felt she had become a bit of an alcoholic but not to the level that anyone was worrying about it. _But all the people who would worry about me are dead._ She walked over to the fridge, pulled out a bagel and started to munch on it. Grabbing her coat she walked out the door, but not before setting her security systems.

As Alex was walking down the street an AeroSecurity Bot pushed her out of the way frantically shooting at a young boy ahead of it. When the boy turned down into an alleyway the bot followed him. Alex noticed the wires on the bot were hanging and sparking. _It's malfunctioning, it shouldn't be out on the street if it's not in order. _She sprinted off to the alley where the bot had gone down. As she ran further she saw the boy on the floor and the bot was circling him. So she quickly activated her spy drone to deactivate the bot. As the bot was readying to shoot the boy the drone delivered its EMP attack shutting down the bot. She was going to walk forward, then she noticed the boy crawling towards her. When he came near to her he collapsed. "Hey kid, are you alright?" "I…." He collapsed and he closed his eyes.

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Tatsumi opened his eyes. He was lying on a bed with the covers up to his chin and a medbot floating around. He pulled himself up, looking around the room. The walls were covered in dark purple. Near a huge window showing a view of Tokyo's most beautiful buildings and structures was a dresser against the wall. There was a bluish energy blade on the dresser with Chinese detail on the handle.

"Feeling any better?" Tatsumi turned around to see a woman standing in the doorway. She had shoulder length black hair, purplish eyes which meant that she was modified, her lips were fullish and had been coated with some pink lip-gloss. She was wearing a long beige trench coat buttoned up to the neck and black flat shoes. In her hands was a tray, on it was a plate of sandwiches, "Hope you like ham, this is all I can cook right now, until the RepairBot fixes my oven."

"No, I don't mind, and yes, I'm feeling better. Erm…where am I?"

"You're in my place, in my room. I couldn't take you to a hospital because it was too far away, besides I have a medbot here."

Tatsumi blushed, he'd never had a pretty woman talking to him, or giving him food and she'd probably saved his life. "What's your nam-"

"Alex D. You?"

"Tatsumi Masui."

"Tatsumi Masui, do you know why that bot was following you?"

"Why? Are you with the WTO?"

"Just answer the question?"

"Well, I accidentally got into a fight and the bot came along and started shooting everything it saw."

"I see."

"You don't think I did anything wrong, do you?" Tatsumi said in panicked tone, raising himself up from the bed."

"Calm down, I'm not accusing you of anything, besides that bot was malfunctioning. Who was it you got into a fight with?" Alex said calmly placing the tray on the foot of the bed.

"I…I didn't know him. He just tried to mug me, that's all!" The boy said, his eyes looked like they were going to break down in tears.

"Sorry, it must have been hard for you to have been mugged. Where's your family? Why are you on the streets?" She said sympathetically.

"M…My family…They…they all died two years ago… in an accident. I…I have no where else to go, I live on the streets of Tokyo, doing everything I can to make ends meet."

"Why aren't you in an orphanage, they would take good care of you."

"I…there were complications."

"Uh huh." Alex was getting slightly suspicious of this boy. _It was probably a vendetta. Looks like somebody was messing around with the bot reprogramming it to hunt him down. _"Maybe you should stay here with me."

"No…I'll just be a burden to you."

"No, you won't be, it's perfectly safe here, there's bullet-proof windows, bots, security cameras, turrets and gold level lasers."

"Are you kidding me? What are you, with the Yakusa or something?"

"No…" Alex giggled. _But I am with the Illuminati._

"Erm…Am I going to sleep here, in your bed?" Tatsumi blushed as he spoke.

"No, you'll be sleeping in the guest room." Alex said firmly but slightly amused, "Come on, I'll show you to it."

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"Did you get the boy?" a black-suited Japanese man asked.

"Regrettably no," answered the other Japanese man in a navy blue suit.

"How come?"

"The bot was deactivated before it got to finish the job."

"How did it happen? You said the plan was foolproof. The WTO would assume the boy was breaking the law."

"Some kind of electro-magnetic pulse deactivated it. I'm sorry, Haruki, I am sorry I failed you, I'm sorry I failed our family."

"Hisato, you know you don't have to apologize to me, you have to apologize to Eiichi."

"Eiichi! I'll be hanging from a street lamp if he hears I've failed to kill the boy!" shouted Hisato.

"Next time don't use bots to do the job, Hisato," said a patronising voice. The man who'd just appeared was wearing a black suit with an embroidered royal blue ginkgo. (A/N : symbol of loyalty in Japan, the ginkgo is said to be willing to die for its owner)

"Eiichi…I can explain what happen-"

"I should have known it was a mistake to get you to kill him!" Eiichi said threateningly. Hisato trembled, he remembered the last time someone had failed Eiichi in an assassination. Eiichi had pulled out his sword and cut off the poor man's feet while he was still standing. He hated to imagine what he was going to do to him.

"Forgive me, I…I-"

"Go on, let me hear your excuse," said Eiichi pulling out a katana-shaped energy blade.

"…I thought the plan would be foolproof. I reprogrammed the bot and I hired a man to try and mug him and when I got back to the area, the man was dead and the boy and the bot were gone. And when I checked up the alley I found the disabled bot and a trail of blood but the boy wasn't there. A little later I saw a woman carrying him up an apartment building but there were just too many WTO guards there," panicked Hisato.

Eiichi halfway put away his blade, "Strange, I wonder why there are WTO guards at the apartment building, I would have thought they would have been SSC guards."

"That's not all. When I followed her up to her room, there were two strange-looking guards each side of the door, biomodified pale, red-eyed strange looking men, holding mag-rails."

"Then we must be dealing with someone of a higher order than us."


	3. Enchained

Chapter three : Enchained

Tatsumi and Alex were both sitting in the lounge area of her penthouse. Alex was reading a book, Tatsumi was looking at her, trying to think of something to say to break the silence.

"So…how…long have you been modified?" he finally got out. Alex didn't answer back, she just looked at him from the corner of her eye and then went back to reading her book. _This is so awkward, try to think of something else besides asking personal questions!_

"So…what do you…I mean…how long you lived in Tokyo?" Still no answer. "So…what's the book about? Is it good?" Alex stared at him. Reaching out her hand she grabbed the remote and threw it towards him. The remote landed on his lap. Sighing, Tatsumi turned on the holoTV.

After a few hours of watching TV there was seemingly nothing good on for Tatsumi and he switched it off. He got up and stopped right in front of Alex. She was still reading her book and seemed to be on the last page. "I'm going up to my room, is that ok?" There was a short pause until she closed the book and lay it down beside her.

"Yeah, that's fine."

"That's the only thing you've said all afternoon."

"I don't like to stop reading my books unless it's really important."

"Why do you do that? Don't you like talking to people?"

"It's about what some historian believes about why JC Denton caused the collapse."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Yeah, but I answered the one you asked three hours ago."

"I'm surprised you remembered."

"Well, I am modified."

"Well, I'm off to bed, are you coming?"

"No, I'm not tired. You go on ahead."

"Ok." Tatsumi walked off and ascended the stairs. Reaching the landing he stared down into the living room. He saw her get up and walk over to the bookcase and pull out a data cube. She seemed to fiddle around with it and then put it back. Alex quickly turned to see Tatsumi, he quickly turned and sprinted off towards his room. _Nosy kid._

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"Come on, Hisato, it's not like Eiichi cut off your arm or anything!" Haruki said patting Hisato on the shoulder.

"But he cut off my index finger, and on my left hand too! He knows I'm left-handed!"

"I wonder why he didn't cut off your little finger?"

"He wanted me to suffer more. God, I wish our family wasn't like this sometimes! Eiichi was less ruthless before father made him our boss!"

"Sometimes I wonder if the power's gone to his head." Haruki commented. Hisato stared up at him a serious look on his face.

"I doubt the power's gone to his head, he's just got more responsibility than we do. You and I often forget that."

"Yes, very true……I hope Eiichi is right about sending Isao to finish the hit."

"He is. Isao has been trained to be an assassin all his twenty-four years of life. And he has been modified along the way."

"Then I'll pray that he'll succeed where others have failed."

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"Wake up, darling, wake up!"

Alex blinked a few times, then rose from where she was laying and turned to the direction of the voice. There he stood, a bouquet of white roses in his arms. "Are those for me?"

"Of course they are, silly," he giggled. He held out the bouquet. Alex placed her finger on one of the petals, they were soft as silk. She looked into his eyes, "They're beautiful." He said nothing, just smiled at her. She looked around the room, she was in some kind of office. A huge holocom covered one wall and a computer lay on a desk near the holocom. She knew she had been here before, this was the chief's office of the UNATCO base on Liberty Island. _How on earth did I get here?_

"You recognise the place, don't you?" he said with a serious look on his face.

"John, John I-"

"I worked here when I was loyal to them. But when they found out I wasn't as loyal as I could be they activated my killswitch."

"Yes, I remember, you told me."

"Alex, you know I would never do that to you, you're too important to me. No matter what my brother or Tong says."

"John, what are you talking about?" Alex said. A concerned look appeared on her face, "Even after all I've done? Even the way I killed you and-"

"You know, Orientals say white is the colour of death. Like the flowers in my hands."

Alex was not liking how this conversation was going. She tried to move but she felt something tugging her back down. She looked to see chains on her wrists and ankles.

"You can't run away from your guilt. You can't run away from me," John whispered in her ear, his voice turning sinister.

"John, let me go!" she yelled.

"Oh, John let me go!" he mocked her, "No, actually, I won't. I'm gonna make you pay the full price for what you've done." John reached into his trenchcoat, pulled out some throwing knives, took a step back and threw one at Alex. It missed her head by a millimetre. He threw again, this time hitting her shoulder. He smiled as she screamed. He threw two knives at once, one piercing her lung, another the palm of her right hand.

"Please, John, I'm sorry, please stop it!" yelled Alex in pain.

"You're right, Alex, this kind of revenge is not the way," he said sympathetically, putting the remaining throwing knives back in his trenchcoat. He walked over towards her, putting his hand on her face, "Did it hurt very much, my little angel? Don't worry, I'll pull those nasty things out of you. This might hurt a little bit."

Alex winced when he pulled the knives out of her body. She saw the chains starting to disappear from her wrists and ankles, then she collapsed, sobbing, into her brother's arms.

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A thud woke Tatsumi from his sleep. He looked around his room, everything was normal. The sound must have come from outside of his room. He got up and exited the room. He walked down the hallway. When he reached the stairs, at the bottom was Alex face down. She wasn't moving.

"Alex! Alex!" He ran towards her, shaking her body, trying to wake her up. _What if she's dead? The only person who's been willing to protect me! It's all my fault!_ _Calm down, how do we know she's dead yet? Feel her pulse, you idiot!_ Tatsumi put his fingers on her neck feeling her pulse, she was still alive! _Oh, thank God!_ He looked her over, there seemed to be not a single scratch on her. Her black hair was so lovely and flowing. He felt her hair between his fingers. _So soft._ Tatsumi looked down towards her legs, they weren't covered as they were when he previously last saw her. They looked like they were silky soft to touch. He reached out a hand to touch her thigh. _What if she woke up and found out you were going to touch her like a pervert? No, she won't, she seems very deep in sleep. She'll throw you out, if you do it! No, she won't! Touch her! Yes, she will! No, she won't!_ Tatsumi cut his thoughts out and laid his hand on her knee. And without a second thought he moved his hand higher up her leg slowly and carefully. _Yes, higher, higher until you reach her-_

"That's far enough, young man!" Tatsumi felt a gun pressed against the back of his head. Tatsumi turned his head to see a strange bald-headed extremely pale-skinned man with red eyes holding a rifle-like weapon pointed to his face.

A/N : In this story "John" is the real nameof one of the Denton brothers


	4. Nightvisitor

"Are you trying to tell me to turn my back on my brother?"

"No, I-"

"The man I grew up with? The one I gave my loyalty to over twenty years?"

"I..I'm just worried about his sanity."

"Listen to me, I trust his vision, I always have."

"How do we know it isn't Helios talking? How do we know he's not just a mouthpiece for that computer?"

"The Illuminati and the Templars are just saying that because they can't handle his vision! He's at a higher level now!"

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JC was reclining on the grass, his head against the trunk of a cherry tree, watching the blossoms fall from the branches, dancing in the wind. He turned to see Alex D standing near him.

"I've never been to Japan before, when I was alive," he said softly.

"Is there one day I can go by without thinking about you?" Alex said in a tense voice.

"Why would you want to?"

"Because you're driving me nuts! I can't go on a date without thinking about you!"

He stood up and yelled, "If you want to get rid of me so badly, why don't you go and see somebody about it?"

"I can't, John, I can't!" she screamed.

"Yes, you can! If you don't this guilt is going to eat you up until there is nothing left!"

"Why couldn't you have been more than just a brother to me then?" Tears streaming down her face.

"Because you had a job to do," he answered coldly.

The sky turned from day to night in the blink of an eye. The leaves and blossoms blew away in the wind leaving the trees bare. Snow fell. Buildings were rising from the ground. Blood stained the white snow.

"Back to Liberty Island, eh?"

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"Let me out! I didn't do anything to Alex! I heard a thud and I went to check downstairs, and there she was!" Tatsumi shouted banging against the door. None of the strange men answered. The freakish red-eyed men had thrown him in the bathroom because they didn't know what to do with him until Alex woke up. After a couple of times of banging on the door he finally gave up and sat on the toilet. _Hope she's ok. She's the only person to look after me who's lived more than five hours. _It was a wonder how he always managed to escape all the assassination attempts. _If another innocent person dies I'll never forgive myself._

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Alex's mind swirled. Words echoed in her mind, "What you did was wrong but you can put it to rights. Come and find me! Come and find me!"

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"Ms D, are you awake?" Alex opened her eyes to see an Illuminati Commando hovering over her.

"Yes, I am. How long have I been asleep?" she answered.

"At least fifteen minutes."

"The boy is in the bathroom. We didn't know what to do with him until you had woken up."

"Why? He didn't do anything wrong."

"I saw him touching your leg and I had to intervene before he did something very inappropriate!"

And with the commando's comment she got off the sofa and stormed towards the bathroom door. She took a few deep breathes and then unlocked the door. The bathroom door slid to the side and Tatsumi fell out.

"You were touching my leg while I was unconscious?"

"I…I was going to get you some help…but…but…I…I…" Tatsumi wished the ground would just swallow him up after saying that. _She's going to throw me out now, she's going to throw me out, and I'll have no where else to go!_ "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I know it was wrong, but I got distracted and I-"

"And you're a young boy with raging hormones."

"Well, what were you doing there anyway?"

"I think I was overtired. Don't worry about it."

"How many times has this happened? Maybe you should see a doctor."

"Don't worry about me."

"You should at least get it checked out."

"I said, don't worry."

"I always have to worry about the people who take care of me, I always do."

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"Next stop, the Blossom and Tea Hotel penthouse roof! You good to go?" shouted the pilot with the Australian accent to the man in black, dressed head to foot in form-fitting ballistic armour. His name was Isao Yano, the best nano-augmented assassin in all of Tokyo. He could make anything look like an accident if he was told to. None of his missions had ever failed. At only nine years old he had been nano-augmented. People always said he had the luck of the devil on his side, as he never failed at anything. _Tonight the Yano family will finally show Ayano what happens when you mess around with the Yakuza. _Isao closed his eyes and jumped out of the helicopter while activating his parawing. Landing on the roof the parawing quickly dissolved away. He ran towards the glass roof window, looking through. There the window showing the lounge was covered by five gold level lasers. Also patrolling the area was a Hunter-Seeker bot. But other than that he couldn't see anything else in the room. _Like I was going to go in there. You have to be a fool to go through that. If the lasers don't kill you the bot will finish you off._ He scanned the area until he found a ventilation shaft. He switched on his vision enhancement, there were no spider bots at all in there. _What kind of idiot would not keep spider bots, if not to keep away the vermin to at least keep the assassins busy?_ So he thought while crawling in the shaft.

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It was official, her head hurt like hell, and worst of all she started falling asleep in strange places and the dreams were driving her nuts. _Maybe I should go to see someone? Then maybe I could finally understand what these dreams are all about? I could finally put this all-_ Strange banging noises were coming from the ventilation system, and they didn't sound like rodents either, they sounded human. She had a bad feeling about this. Whoever was in the vent was probably after Tatsumi. She reached into her gun cabinet, pulled out a pistol and climbed into the ventilation shaft.

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Isao crawled until he reached an opening, then turned on his vision enhancement. No one was in the room. Continuing forward he detected a person of adolescent height, it seemed he had actually found the target, but he couldn't be sure as he was quite far away. He pulled out a laser tool and a magnetic clasp and cut a hole through the metal. He activated his cloak and lowered himself down by a winch-descender through the hole. He actually got a good look around the room as well as the boy. Inside the room was a double bed with navy blue duvet and golden leaf patterned pillow covers. A desk was against a wall. The young boy was seated at the desk. He appeared to be writing something on a piece of paper. _Whatever you're writing does not concern me as your blood will be spilled and then your mother will understand why not to mess with us._ Pulling out an energy blade he lowered himself down, closer to the boy. Then, just as he was about to slice the target's throat, he heard a sound coming from the air vent. _That's strange, that doesn't sound like a spiderbot, that sounds like a person. But who could be up there? _He pulled himself up to have a look. When he peeked through he couldn't see anyone, even with his vision enhancement. Then a gunshot came and hit him between the eyes, he fell backwards, hanging, blood flowing from his head. The assassin was dead before he knew it. He never saw his killer coming.

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"Good morning Tokyo, this is the news with me, Yoko Kono! Crime statistics in Tokyo have gone up 20 in the last fifty years but the WTO are confident they can bring the figure down by 36 in the next three months. NG Resonance has revealed that she'll be having a world tour, including Tokyo in a couple of week's time. Critics are raving, saying this will be her greatest tour yet. In other news, a body of what is believed to be aYakuza assassin was found in the Blossoms and Tea Hotel penthouse suite."


	5. Shadow of the pendulum

A/N : sorry for the wait, this chapter is a bitshort

Chapter five : Shadow of the pendulum

Tatsumi stared up at the body of the man whose family wanted to kill him, still in a state of shock. He had just been minding his own business, writing a letter to Alex, telling her that he didn't want to be a burden to her any more as he was afraid they would kill her as well as him...so he would be leaving Tokyo. But before he could finish it a gunshot rang out. A man appeared almost from nowhere, falling backwards from the airvent. Blood splattered onto Tatsumi's face, yet he did not notice, his eyes gazing fixedly upon the slowly turning grotesque pendulum that was once a man. Alex D's head popped through from the airvent, a concerned look on her face, "I'm sorry you had to see that, are you alright?" She had saved his life, again. Alex dropped from the hole in the ceiling, her feet padding softly upon the carpeted floor. The boy just looked, his eyes staring, unseeing, his mind filled with a vision of what had just occurred.

"Are you going to be alright?" Alex said in a concerned voice. An awkward silence came between Alex and Tatsumi. "Are you going to be alright?" Alex repeated, concern filling her voice. The boy just stared back, his eyes glazed, his mind filled with memories of horror, of dead, lifeless corpses, of loved ones and strangers, of anyone who'd given him any hope of safety. Tears welled in his eyes and emotion cascaded out of his soul. He cried, cried not as he'd ever done, not for ages, and Alex held him, held him close to her and he knew he would be safe.

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Eiichi Yano was enshrouded in the darkness of his office, the shadows overwhelming the dim flicker of the holocom, its only ally the muted glow of the datapad Eiichi held before him. The autopsy report was long and boring, but dull as it was, it was avid reading. The shot was elegant, a single killing blow, a bullet to the brain, it was either the work of a master or a fool who got lucky. Logic dictated the former. _Fool! Why didn't Isato finish the hit? He could have died honourably, not been remembered for the fool he was!_ _The boy was lucky this time, but next time it would not fail! For my turn had come._ _As the old saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself._ And he slowly caressed the handle of his energy blade.

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Tatsumi gazed out of the window, the images of yesterday, of the blood, of the death, were still real in his mind, but they were starting to dull, dull like all the other memories, memories that he held in the vault of his mind. A movement made him stir, the visage of Alex formed in the reflection of the window, her arm moved hesitantly around his shoulder. "I'm alright, really, it's nothing I haven't seen before," the boy said, still gazing fixedly out of the glass window. "You still need to talk," Alex said, "We all have to talk sometime, believe me, I know." Tatsumi looked round. Alex was staring far off, lost in her own memories, and at that moment he felt a bond they shared, a past, different but equally filled with blood and horror, equally filled with despair.

"You do?"

"I've lost loved ones, some by other hands and some by mine," she said with sorrow filling her eyes, memories of the past still warm, still burning. The glaze returned, her thoughts shifting to another place, a place of hurt, a place of pain, a place where she had done things she desperately tried to forget - the island where she had ended the lives of JC and Paul Denton - Liberty Island...Liberty, Liberty. Alex started to laugh. It was a free, uncomplicated laugh, a laugh to release all her hurts and pains. Yes, she had given them freedom, or had she given herself freedom? Then something sick swirled up inside her and she turned away. She didn't want to think anymore, she didn't want to know anymore, she just wanted to go away. Tatsumi watched her go, he knew how she felt, he knew pain when he saw it. She was like him, he knew that now, and for the first time in a long while he knew he would be safe, he knew he'd found home.


	6. You always kill the one you love

Chapter six You always kill the one you love

Eiichi Yano crouched in the shadows, the only light in the room coming from a small lantern swinging silently from the ceiling. There he waited, his breath shallow, almost non-existent, his eyes fixed on the paper sliding door, his mind rigidly focused on the task at hand – survival! And finally it came, the moment he had been awaiting, a moment his tense muscles had expected, burned and now prepared to react. He watched as the door silently slid aside. It was delicate, almost poetic in its motion, the air itself oblivious to its movement. The dark clothed assassin - a Ninja - for that was what he was, moved fluidly into the room, not even the slightest disturbance betraying his entry. Death moved and breathed, and death was now in front of Eiichi, yet death had been outmatched. The dark assassin stood above his prey, ready to strike the blow that would elegantly end a life, only he had failed to see the shadow behind him, a shadow that lurked in the corner of the darkened room, a shadow that struck with blinding destruction. The assassin fell, the top of his spine severed with a single blow, an incision merely 2 cms deep severing his body's link to the brain. He fell, there was little blood, there was not even an utterance of pain, only death's embrace.

"End program," Yano uttered the words, seemingly out of place in the tranquil scene, then suddenly all dissolved to nothingness and he awoke in his virtual rig, the electrodes still attached to his scalp by sticky pads. They were cool against his skin, refreshing. Eiichi smiled, he was good, but soon it would be real.

"Wonderful performance, Master," said a sultry voice from the ceiling.

"I'm glad you liked it. Is there any reason for you intruding on me, Scarlet?"

"I've found the information you wanted, Master."

"Really? The one who occupies the penthouse and who killed Isato?" Eiichi said as he pulled off an electrode from his forehead.

"The one who owns the penthouse is a very high up operative in the WTO. Her name - Alex Denton. Age - 28 years old. Height - 5' 11". Weight - 148 lbs. Education - Tarsus Academy. Family - foster parents, her origin unknown. Past medical history - has been biomodified, modifications unknown. Tarsus training advanced level. The full dossier is on your desk, Master.

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"Of course, Master." The image of a young woman formed in the swirl of a nearby holocom.

"A bit young to be a high WTO operative, don't you think?" Eiichi said as he walked over to the holocom, his facial expression questioning the validity of the information.

"Maybe, Master. But be careful of her, she did kill Isato after all, and he was one of our best, M-."

"Isato was a fool! Disgraced his family with his foolishness! This is my chance to bring back the honour my family once had, by killing that brat and haunting that so called mother of his to her grave!" shouted Eiichi with such fierce passion that he slammed his fist onto the holcom, disrupting the image of the young woman before him. But then, almost in prophecy of the future, the holocom reformed anew, intact, inviolate, deformed only by the shadow of Eiichi's hand. The darkness swelled in Eiichi's mind, the darkness of foolishness and superstition, a darkness that Eiichi tore from him. He would not be a fool! And the vile machine flew across the room.

...Alex looked into her coffee, the rich pungent smell filling her nostrils. That smell always made everything right, made the world make sense.

"How do you want your eggs, dear?"

"The usual, mom," Alex replied. She always asked that. Funny, it always used to piss her when she asked that, but right now nothing could upset her, the sun streamed in through the garden window, and life just could not get any better. The wooshing sound was subtle, almost hidden by Alex's breathing, but it was a sound that froze the blood, it was the sound of nanite conversion. Alex turned, her heart pumping, mind screaming. _No, no, it wasn't like this!_ Alex screamed. The smiling face of her mother gazed back, petrified, dead, vacant. Alex screamed again. _It wasn't like this!_ But it was, it was, and she wasn't there. They died and she wasn't there, they died, that she might be destroyed, a whole city to wipe out the Apostle Corp and her. She screamed again and watched as her mother's head crumbled from the frozen shoulders, dead, lifeless shoulders, and Alex crumpled against the table. Except it wasn't a table, it was a bench, a bench in a park, a park on Liberty Island, a bench she had never seen, but now clung to.

"Are you my friend?" Tatsumi's voice was filled with wonder and need, with adoration.

"Of course I am, I will always be your friend." The voice was clear, the voice of JC. Alex looked up. JC stood in front of Tatsumi, a broad smile filling his face, a smile that could never be. " I'll always be your friend." JC's hand lightly caressed Tatsumi's chin, and with a flick twisted his head a full 120 degrees. Tatsumi's lifeless corpse fell to the floor, his face still fixed in an adoring smile.

"Why?" Alex heard her self say. She spoke with a detached calmness, an ethereal grace.

JC turned, his eyes fixing on her own, " _You always kill the ones you love, don't you?_" a small smile played on his lips, "_You always do, don't you? You taught me that, you taught me how to love_." And Alex screamed...

Seiki Moon was in ecstasy. The girl who giggled at his every touch was perfect, her skin smooth, lovingly formed, her body artistically shaped. She gazed down onto him, as he lay beneath her, eyes like huge limpet pools, pools that a man could drown in...

"Get the fuck up, dope head!" The voice cut into Seiki's brain, jarring him loose from the pleasure sim, back, inexorably back, into the real world. Seiki looked up at the face of his sometimes friend Tsutomu - partner, confidante and all round arsehole. "Never, fucking never, do that again!" Seiki spat the words, as his hands grabbed at his friend's collar, his face vivid with rage.

"Ok, Ok! It's just your shift. Lighten up!"

Seiki Moon breathed in a deep breath, "Fine, just don't do it again." His voice full of control, Seiki removed the sim lead from his head jack, gently rose from his couch and calmly walked away. Tsutomu smiled to himself, _the guy was nuts, he loved him, but the guy was nuts._

Moon gazed into the optic enhancer, his face pushed against the rubber cups of the device, slightly distorting his mouth and cheeks into a half grimace. The girl's outline was all too clear, her naked form unveiled to full effect through the optical enhancement of the device, its ghostlike image revealing her lithe form as she showered, oblivious of her voyeur. Seiki stared intently at the writhing body, its motions calling forth memories – memories better not remembered – but that came forth nevertheless by their own will.

_...Everything was going to according to plan. First he managed to infiltrate the base with almost no problem, carefully, quietly, sneakily. It was almost as if he wasn't there. Sure, he had a few problems, but he managed to solve them quickly and efficiently. Of course, just as he was reaching his target, something had to fucking distract him. Oh yes, every fucking time! This time it was a girl. Oh, he knew that body, oh, he knew that body! It was Christina, owwww!_

_Yeah, Christina. She was the woman he had had a fling with a few years back. Boy, did she have an ass! Of course, she wouldn't be happy to see him. Not because he was peeking at her in the shower...well, because he betrayed her by...he kinda killed her fiance and took her drug ring down to dust...but this was the present not the past...he **had** to reach the target before dawn..._

_The door opened, its almost silent motion only slightly disturbing the air. The darkness of the room, revealed only in the green luminescence of Moon's lowlight vision, told the story of a late-night rendezvous - couple of glasses on the table, half burning cigarette in the ashtray, and the heady perfume of one Christina Heidel. Seiki wondered on who her companion would have been. Probably the administrator of the base, but knowing her it could have been anyone, she wasn't that fussy. After all, she had gone for him. The wall safe was glaringly obvious and that in itself was disturbing. Anything obvious is usually trapped or a fake. Probably in this case both. Seiki gazed around the room. Something out of place, something not right. There, in the corner, barely perceptible, an anomaly, a slight distortion. His visual enhancement could see through walls, but something like a wall safe would be shielded. But, the best shielding in the world wasn't perfect, and this wasn't the best shielding. Didn't take him any time at all to find the concealed button to reveal the safe in a floor recess. Springing it was even easier. Expertly he used his multitools, overriding the code lock, and gaining access to that which was within - DNA 261/B. Moon clasped the vial tightly in his hand and smiled. _Hell, must've been one hell of a party, Christina's perfume is way, way too strong_ The thought dawned on him as he slowly turned to see the beauty in the doorway, a bath towel around her body, a pistol in her hand. Seiki smiled, "This looks bad, doesnt it?"_

_Christina nodded slightly, the smile on her lips frozen in place._

_"Guess you wouldn't believe I came to make up, huh?"_

_"No," she mouthed, merely a silent hiss, betraying the venom in her voice. Moon thought quickly. Shotgun was on a quick release back-holster, but it would take about a half a second to pull, and a quarter of second to discharge, by that time he would be full of lead. He knew she was a mean bitch, truth was he didn't know how mean. He didn't want to find out. _Oh, well, here goes_, he thought, _hope she hasn't got sun filters._ His mind concentrated on the activation switch sequence for his visual augmentation. He stared into her eyes and slightly smiled. As he did, his augmented visual circuitry exploded in a cascade of intense light - single point flash, only works on one person at a time and screws up his eyelight circuits for about ten minutes - but it saved his ass today! _Those boys in R & D know what they're doing, have to send them a cigar._ The girl reeled backwards, her hand across her eyes, the brilliant luminescence burning into her brain. The shotgun was in his hands in less than a half a second, aiming and splattering her against the corridor outside of her room. She was a ragdoll buffeted by a wind of destruction, her blood branding the mark of her death into the white carpet that she lay upon. Her eyes betraying the disbelief of the moment of her demise._

_"Ah, now look what you've gone and made me do! Oh, shit!" It was times like this that Seiki hated himself, hated the job he did, but he had no choice, he had no fucking choice! He never did. Time for remorse later, over a drink at the bar, and a sad song on the juke. It's the way it always was. He wondered if someone would do that about him one day. That made him smile, but then he got on with his life..._

A voice intruded on Seiki's thoughts, bringing him back to the world. It was one of the other guys that had come over to relieve him from his post.

"Caught up in things, are you, Seiki?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah."

"Here, let me have a look!" The other guy looked through the lens. "Oh yeah, I can see where you're coming from! He, he, he, ha! Hey, that's better than that…ahm… virtual shit that you're into, ain't it?"

"What?"

"You know. Wo, I like it! Wowww!"

"Oh, get a life, man!" said Seiki and Seiki got up and walked off.

"Get a life! Ha, ha, ha! Watch that! Right! Wow!"

Saki just didn't respond.

A/N : Sorry I took so long, complicated ideas and rethinking slowed it down


End file.
